The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning in Midlife (STUDIES IN JUNGIAN PSYCHOLOGY BY JUNGIAN ANALYSTS)

Extraordinarily insightful. A jewel. I highly recommend it to all those who get to mid life feeling suddenly unfulfilled, lost, dissatisfied, disappointed and perhaps with an unsettling lack of purpose and direction. If this sounds familiar and you are currently wondering what is happening and whether life will recuperare meaning again, this book will offer you knowledge, insight and focus to do just that and will help you understand the transition from anxiety and disillusionment to a reassured, calmed and mature fulfilling future.

I wish I'd read this book before having a mid-life crisis, it would have explained so much. The trouble is that no one ever reads books like these before the worst has happened. Maybe doctors should give us a copy on our 49th birthday with the warning 'Keep it safe - you'll be needing this before too long.' This would save a lot of heartache and a great deal of money. Unfortunately doctors don't do that, so misguided idiots desperately try to recapture their lost youth by embarking on affairs, getting divorced, buying sports cars and having plastic surgery. This book is certainly worth reading before you resort to all that and is considerably cheaper. If it fails to prevent your life imploding, at least you'll have the satisfaction of knowing why it's happening.

James Hollis offers an extraordinarily generous gift of wisdom to the reader in beautiful prose that cannot fail to stir the soul.

Book is actually shorter than I expected but has some really useful points to make. The text is quite small and could easily have been better sized and spaced given that the book is thin but a minor point really for an important read.

Read in 2018 - it resonated with my reflections. Read again in 2026 and it has become an imperative "call to action".

Thin book but very, very thought provoking. I'm not a psychologist or well read in the subject but picked this book up on someone else's recommendation. I'm of a certain age and pondering a lot of things over this last year. If you're expecting a self help with a step by step 'how to' guiide - you'll be disappointed but if you want something that makes you think about your feelings / life / where you are going and why then this is it. I've read it in several snippets throughout the past few days and have still not processed it all yet. For Hollis the midddle passage is all about 'becoming' the person you need to be for you and not for anyone else- and not feeling guilty over that growth. Affirming the midlife 'crisis', Hollis sees it as an opportunity for growth. Well written without too much psychological 'jargon' but its a book that needs you to be focused on it while reading.

If you find the 'Parent-Adult-Child' model of the psyche, useful, - then the theme of this book might be represented as, "Please the Child." The Parent and also Jungian complexes, are clearly additive to the personality, - and may not in fact have pleased the Child in one's earlier life. The book has a lot of erudite quotations, but probably a case of "ad numeram" so far as proof is concerned.

James Hollis is a pithy writer but the books are short and not rambling like so many can be. This book gave me into how we develop (or I developed) from acceptance to questioning to revolt and then acceptance again with new goals. at a time in life when I felt I needed some guidance. Depending on your own attitude towards this book, it could help you become unstuck from your past and move onto new ways of being in your life from ages I think of 30-50

The stories we live by are told by unconscious beliefs and projections we have acquired in life. James Hollis discusses the phase of the middle passage as part of the third identity in life: “the second adulthood” when projections have dissolved. Much dealt with projections onto institutions such as marriage, parenting, and career that embody what is unclaimed or unknown within ourselves, what is neglected. “…, the adult personality is less a series of choices than a reflexive response to the early experiences and traumata of life.” P. 13 In this tiny but very condensed book, you will find answers to managing the turn within. Dealing with upcoming emotions and relationship problems when stuck in dependencies or with midlife affairs. Finding one’s own authority. Separating who we are from what we have acquired – the false sense of self. “The experience of crisis at midlife is the collapse not of our essential selves, but of our assumption.” P.115 Case studies in literature such as Faust, Comedia Divina, or Madame Bovary enrich this intense experience. A valuable reading.

"In the secret club of the Middle Passage, there is an invitation for greater consciousness and an enlarged capacity for choice. With greater consciousness comes a greater opportunity for forgiveness of others and of ourselves, and, with forgiveness, release from the past. We must address the making of our myths more consciously or we shall never be more than the sum of what has happened to us."

Un libro realmente bueno

Beautifully written and thought provoking book on a significant life transition. Looking at midlife from the Jungian perspective highlights and illuminates some of the greater challenges many of us experience, providing deep insight into what may be actually going on.

This book costs INR 1,450 because their claim seems to be that the book is procured from an overseas printing company. This is not the case - it is printed in India by Peacock Books (Delhi) and the print, as you can see in the attached photos, is of very poor quality. The price of this print of the book is ridiculous!